It felt like old times at the Hollywood Bowl, only indoors, when loquacious conductor John Mauceri performed an all-Leonard Bernstein show last week at the Valley Performing Arts Center in Northridge.

The program, “Bernstein on Stage,” presented a chronology of songs, dances and overtures from nine works accompanied by a quartet of singers (Celena Shafer, Suzanna Guzmán, Casey Candebat and Davis Gaines), the full forces of the New West Symphony, the Gay Men’s Chorus, the Women of Areté Vocal Ensemble and the California Lutheran University Choir. It was a very crowded stage.

Having worked with Bernstein from 1971 until the composer/conductor’s death in 1990, Mauceri was certainly qualified to lead the festivities. And in his traditional chatty style, he provided a running commentary of historical background and enjoyable anecdotes about his life with “Lenny.”

According to VPAC’s executive director, Thor Steingraber, the Bernstein concert was two years in planning and represents the first time examples of these nine stage works have been presented during a single concert, beginning with Bernstein’s 1944 jazzy ballet, “Fancy Free,” and ending with his notable bicentennial flop, “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue” from 1976.

A bit more digging into the Bernstein archive might have unearthed interesting fragments from the composer’s 1974 ballet, “The Dybbuk,” his 1983 opera “A Quiet Place,” incidental stage music for “Peter Pan” (1950) and “The Lark” (1955), or the 1979 musical “The Madwoman of Central Park West.” But even as it was, the show ran well over two hours with one intermission.

The decision to present samples from each show in chronological order offered an interesting exploration of Bernstein’s musical development. It also guaranteed that Act 2 would be substantially stronger since it featured the music from Bernstein’s “Best of all possible worlds” opera, “Candide,” and his greatest hit, “West Side Story.”

The candy-sampler nature of the program, however, took a toll on the performance quality, which went up and down depending on which pieces received the most rehearsal time. When the New West Symphony was good, as it was in the selections from “Candide” and “West Side Story,” they were very good. At other times the orchestral fabric frayed distinctly around the edges.

And nice as it is, the VPAC auditorium (at least from where I was sitting) was far from acoustically balanced. Was it really necessary to assemble such elaborate forces? The first half of the program would have been perfectly well (possibly even better) served by employing the traditional forces of a crisply defined Broadway pit orchestra.

The choice of soloists, on the other hand, was consistently excellent. The foursome rollicked their way through selections from “On the Town,” Bernstein’s rarely performed ode to suburbia, “Trouble in Tahiti,” and “Wonderful Town.” But the most sumptuous singing, not surprisingly, came in the dulcet solos, duets and ensembles from “Candide” and “West Side Story.” And while it was interesting to hear some bits and pieces from “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” it’s pretty clear why it failed.

Davis Gains has lost none of the baritone luster that made him such a memorable “Phantom of the Opera.” Suzanna Guzmán was saucy and spicy. Casey Candebat projected a nice tenor voice. But it was coloratura soprano Celena Shafer who brought the house down with her diamond-cut rendition of “Glitter and Be Gay” from “Candide.”

The VPAC concert represents part of a multiconcert celebration commemorating the Bernstein centenary. On Feb. 3, VPAC will present the dance company Keigwin + Company dancing to Bernstein scores followed on Feb. 24 by the New West Symphony conducted by Richard Kaufman providing live accompaniment to Bernstein’s only film score for “On the Waterfront.”

The Los Angeles Philharmonic will present a live accompaniment to the film version of “West Side Story” Friday and Sunday, Nov. 24 and 26, at Walt Disney Concert Hall.